My concern is that are two distinct concepts at play. One is "validation", a verb, which seems to be simply the basic application of empathy. The other is "vali

My concern is that are two distinct concepts at play. One is "validation", a verb, which seems to be simply the basic application of empathy. The other is "valid", an adjective, which is applied to feelings and emotional states but (as far as I can tell) serves no descriptive purpose beyond "worthy of empathy". But aren't all feelings worthy of empathy? What is gained by such a label?